February 23, 2011

Jake Peavy had a very strong bullpen session today [UPDATE]

Jake Peavy looked strong on the mound today, throwing 40 pitches and earning at least one, “wow, very good” from pitching coach Don Cooper. Peavy threw about 12 breaking balls, facing Omar Vizquel, Lastings Milledge and Eduardo Escobar, and reported no abnormal discomfort afterward. The hurler is due to scale the mound again on Saturday for a workout to be determined. Cooper as much as said he saw more than expected from Peavy today. Ramon Castro, who caught Peavy’s session, thought that the fireballer’s breaking stuff was season-ready, but he estimated his fastball at around 70-80%.

Those reins became a little looser on Wednesday during Peavy’s second 40-pitch live bullpen session in the past three days. Once again, the outing was split up into two “innings,” with Peavy throwing 20 pitches, sitting down and giving way to Gavin Floyd, and then coming back to throw 20 more.

Of those 40 pitches, Peavy estimated 10 or 12 of those were of the breaking ball variety. It marked a significant climb from just the handful of off-speed pitches Peavy threw on Monday.

Having these breaking balls look crisp and sharp becomes another bonus in this climb to a regular-season return.

“It looked like the old Peavy, breaking ball stuff,” said White Sox catcher Ramon Castro, who was behind the plate Wednesday when Peavy threw to hitters Lastings Milledge, Omar Vizquel and Eduardo Escobar. “With the fastball he’s not there yet, but he’s going to get there.”

“Now he is throwing the ball better,” said White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper of Peavy. “He probably went up a notch in intensity. He certainly is doing what everybody else is doing. It’s a credit to the surgeons, Jake and Herm [Schneider, White Sox head athletic trainer], following up on all the things he is supposed to be doing.”